


The Call of Fred

by willow redfern (persephone20)



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 23:09:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4541001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephone20/pseuds/willow%20redfern





	1. Prologue

Willow didn't have a whole lot of time--from when she left L.A. to when she and Faith arrived on Sunnydale streets to find a nearly dead woman on the side of the road--to think about her last interaction with Fred. 

The next day, Xander's in hospital, and then she and Dawn are kicking Buffy out of Rivello Drive, and then Kennedy's curled up to her and all Willow can think about is that they're all going to die if Faith can't pull something together to keep it from happening.

Faith. If anyone had told her three or four years ago that they'd be at one of these end-of-the-world scenarios and counting on Faith to get them through... Well, Willow wasn't sure what she would have said to that person. She would have thought they were a definite crazy person, not sure what they were talking about. 

And yet here they all were. And there weren't any better plans. 

She couldn't even ask her girlfriend where she thought her best friend might have ended up. Forget about being able to sleep entirely. But it's not an option to leave the bed, either. She'd never been aware of how sharp Buffy's reflexes were before sleeping with Kennedy. Willow wondered how she'd never noticed she woke Buffy up every time she got up to pee on one of their sleepovers. 

Without leaving the bed, Willow casts her mind towards L.A., and Fred. Fred had no real idea about how she'd abused the magicks, flayed a person, almost ended the world. Willow had had no problem sharing that with Wesley, or Cordelia, but somehow saying those words had been a bridge too far whenever Fred came in the room. In some ways, it was like meeting Tara again, but also sooo not. It was just good, Willow realised, to be able to talk magicks with someone else without them freaking out, or just not understanding it. She hadn't had that since Tara.

Fred not only understood it, she had her own way of reaching into those mystic paths. She had an understanding of the physics of magic that Willow didn't think she'd be ever able to follow. Fred could translate texts like they were written in English, and Willow didn't think she even minded reading Latin. 

So, of course she'd had to blurt out that she was seeing someone else. Big bad ultimate evil she might have been not even twelve months before but, inside, she's still Willow Rosenberg, and it turns out she's just as terrible at forming words with women as she once was with men. 

Fred isn't asleep either. That comes as a relief to Willow as she slips into her thoughts. Dream thoughts are weird, and there's something more invasive about them than just wandering into someone's head while they're still awake. Fred wasn't alarmed or weirded out the first time she did this, just as she reached the outskirts of L.A. and making sure that they were still holding tight with Angelus in their basement. 

_Oh_. Fred's mental voice sounds like an exhaled breath, even though nobody needed to breath to talk like this. Willow basks in the sense of relief and warmth that comes across in that one syllable. _It's you. I didn't know if I'd hear from you again._

_What? Why's that?_

But Fred's answering silence tells her what she'd already suspected. Willow only just refrains from reaching the heel of her hand up to butt against her forehead. She _knew_ she blundered her goodbye to Fred. 

_Doesn't matter,_ Fred adds, which makes Willow wonder how much of her thoughts she'd just allowed Fred to be privy to. It's good to hear you again.

 _It's good to hear you too,_ Willow echoes, trying to put in the warmth that Fred seems to manage without effort, and push away her own feelings of awkwardness. _Couldn't sleep_?

 _Nothing like an apocalypse to keep you awake,_ Fred says. 

Immediately, Willow feels concern. _Angelus??_

But Fred's quick to reassure her. _Nothing like that. Cordy's pregnant. She's been hiding it from us, but she's pretty far along. Everyone's freaking out. Gunn's off with..._

That thought cuts off, but not before Willow catches a hint of jealousy, and sadness. Out of consideration for her new friend, she butts out of that as Fred probably wants. 

_Cordy's pregnant?_ Willow asks, aiming for the safer topic. Jeez, when did Cordy being pregnant become the _safer_ topic?

 _Yeah._ Even in her head, Fred sounds sheepish. She changes the topic. _How about you? And... Faith? And... everyone._

 _No good news here, I'm afraid,_ Willow says. As she goes on to detail the last day and a half since returning to Sunnydale, tiredness starts to weigh down her eyelids. _Heh. Apocalypses everywhere. Kinda makes you just wish they'd line up one at a time,_ she ends. 

_You sound tired,_ Fred tells her. 

_Yeah..._ Willow answers. 

_And I.. should be getting to sleep as well. But I'm glad you reached out,_ she finishes. 

_I'm glad too,_ Willow says, hardly even startled by how much she means it. _I'll reach out again soon,_ she promises, before ending the telepathic link. 

As though sensing something has changed, Kennedy rolls towards Willow in her sleep. Willow stiffens for only a second before she remembers herself. Softening her body into Kennedy's embrace, Willow closes her eyes, and allows herself to fall asleep in her lover's arms. 


	2. Chapter 2

_Wolfram and Hart..._

For a minute, Willow tries to locate where in her mind she's heard that phrase before. Before she's sorted it, Fred answers it for her.

 _Evil law firm, home office in L.A. Been at least partially responsible for several apocalypses on this side of the world that we know of at least._ Fred's Texan twang came through loud and clear through the telepathic link that connected them as she reiterated what Willow was sure she should already know. But who could really blame her? They'd just imploded the town she'd grown up in, taking the Hellmouth, the Ubervamps, Bringers and the First (for now) with it until all that was left was a crater where Sunnydale used to be. As if that wasn't enough, the Scooby Gang had travelled clear across the continent to the Hellmouth in Cleveland as a base of ops while more awakened Slayers found their way to them. 

Fred's words give her a momentary Aha. So there _had_ been a reason behind the dip in Willow's stomach as she heard the name 'Wolfram and Hart'. Then another thought catches up to her. _Hang on--_

 _Angel thinks that we can do some good from the inside,_ Fred says.

 _Angel?_ Willow queries, only half joking. _Or Angelus._

 _Oh, he's still Angel alright,_ Fred says with a little laugh entering the thought. _He couldn't brood as much about this decision if he weren't._

That's fairly true, Willow is forced to agree.

_Besides, you haven't seen the science labs. They're massive. And with these resources, I don't even know what kind of advances we could come up with just in the first year, let alone over time. I bet we could..._

As Fred's thoughts devolve into science babble that Willow only half understands, a dreamy smile lifts the corners of her lips. Oh, Wolfram and Hart were good, going for the science card like this. No power on this earth would be able to talk Fred out of discovering the host of advances she already had in mind to explore. 

_It's just... I never thought I'd get an opportunity like this._ Fred's babbling thoughts come to a bit of a stutter, as if just realising that she'd been the only one talking for a little while now. _I mean, we were encouraged to experiment at the university all the time, but there's just a limit to what you can do with those facilities, ya'know?_

 _I know,_ Willow says indulgently. It was something she'd become well aware of during her time at U.C. Sunnydale. _But just..._ Having started the thought, Willow doesn't quite know how to continue it without sounding like some boring know-it-all. 

_I know, I know,_ Fred says, as though she's heard this all before. Willow imagines she has; that Angel Investigations have had a number of talks centring around this offer. Quite frankly, Willow doesn't know what Angel is thinking of, putting himself into a situation like this where he could be so easily tempted. She bites her lip as she wonders whether it's a good idea to let Buffy know what's going on. But then, Buffy has a lot on her plate right now too... _Be careful is what you're going to say, isn't it?_ Fred finishes. 

_I just... I would hate something bad to happen to you,_ Willow says instead. It's quite heartfelt. 

It takes a moment for Fred to reply but, when she does, Willow can hear the smile in her voice. Oh good, Willow thinks with relief. She hadn't offended her. 

_Thank you,_ Fred says. _That means a lot to me. So... How's Cleveland?_

**

Willow and Kennedy never had fights. In its way, what they had was worse. Kennedy had Slayer-related training during the day while Willow continued working at her not-killing-the-rest-of-the-world style of magical control with Giles and some of the members of the Coven who had come across from England to lend their support. The only times she and Kennedy regularly saw each other was for meals, and sleeping. Kennedy always had a very high sex drive, but Willow was much more about the cuddling. And the talking. Willow was a great talker. In fact, it wasn't a stretch to say that she wasn't 100% comfortable with the sex stuff unless there was an almost inordinate amount of talking involved. Before, after, during; Willow didn't mind when. Even at strange points in the middle of the night when her girlfriend started responding to the things she said in her sleep weren't off limits. Willow wasn't fussy. 

But Kennedy wasn't a big talker. So they didn't have fights. They didn't talk enough for that. 

Willow talked an inordinate amount with Fred. 

It started with regular but brief check ins like, _You're not evil?_ or _You're not dead?_ or _Still not evil?_ Willow was a one woman girl and she had no inclination to mix the good friendship she had with something more than that. That way lay badness, as she had well learned twice in her formative years. 

But sometimes it did get lonely. The Coven members and Giles weren't just there for Willow, and there weren't a lot of other magic users in their new base. There was Dawn to talk to about translations--the littler Summers had gotten surprisingly good at translations for someone who hadn't graduated high school!--but more often that not, Willow felt lonely.

"And how's Kennedy?" Xander asks, on one of their habitual walks. With his years of fighting by Buffy's side, he had taken on more of a general position after the Eye Incident. Nobody wanted him fighting anymore and, as long as he didn't feel useless, Xander didn't argue it much. Being a day-to-day general suited him, as well as having the added side effect of freeing Buffy and Faith up for other jobs that needed doing. 

"Kennedy's... fine," Willow answers.

"Whoa. I don't think that could be more underwhelming," Xander observes, in the way of a friend that had known her for way too long. 

"It's not underwhelming," Willow defends Kennedy loyally. "It's just not... overwhelming."

"You're right," Xander says, sticking a hand up against his chest. "That makes all the difference. I'm feeling the romance from here."

"Xander." This is accompanied by a light slap on the upper arm. Unlike when Buffy does the same thing, Xander doesn't flinch. 

"Okay, okay. So..." Xander stuffs his hands into his pockets and slides her a look. "What's the goss?"

"There isn't..." Willow stops her sentence as soon as she sees the blatant lack of belief on her best friend's features. "It's not goss."

"You're right. This is actual heart stuff. Of the heart. So what's going on?"

The concern on Xander's face just about undoes her. Willow's shoulders drop. "We just don't..." Willow makes hand gestures with interlaced fingers, while Xander waits patiently. "We just don't seem to fit. Is it stupid to think that, now that the world isn't ending, there's not much keeping me and Kennedy together anymore?"

"Is that what you think?" Xander asks gently.

"I don't know," Willow whines. "I've never done this before. When Oz left, he just... left. And then he came back, and that was confusing because Tara. But I still loved him, there was just... someone else." Willow's eyes meet Xander's. "There's not someone else this time," she says quickly, as though that was in question.

Xander doesn't say anything for a moment. Then, "Do you still love her?"

"Who?" 

"Kennedy." Xander's voice is as quiet as he can make it while still being heard over the general outdoors-y sounds. "Do you still love her?"

"We just," Willow shakes her head, "have nothing in common. We have nothing to talk about."

"You? Nothing to talk about?" Xander blinks and holds his hands up. "Sorry. Serious. Sorry."

Willow looks at Xander and away again. "I... think I love her. Is it really that easy to fall out of love with someone?"

Xander gives a little shrug. "I fell out of love with Cordy. Took a while. Helped that we were in different cities." He ducks his head and gives a shrug, hands still in his pockets. "I think, if you love someone, you know about it. If you have to think about it this much, though..."

"Yeah. I know," Willow mumbles. 

That night, she has a talk with Kennedy. Not at dinner--there are too many other people about for that--but after. 

"I've been thinking," she starts. "About us."

"What about us?" Kennedy asks, distracted.

Willow bites her lip, but stays silent until she actually has Kennedy's full attention. "I've been thinking," she says again, "about if this is working. This 'us' thing," she clarifies.

Now that she's got Kennedy's full attention, a furrow forms between the dark haired girl's eyebrows. "Us?" she repeats, doubtfully.

"Yeah," Willow says, getting nervous again. "I mean, don't you think there should be more to us than just sleeping in the same bed together at nights?"

"We do more than that," Kennedy argues. 

"Really?" Willow swallows, but she's opened this up now. If she doesn't want to bring it up again later, she needs to keep at it now. "When was the last time we talked after dinner? You're so busy with tactics and strategies--"

"So this is my fault?" Kennedy lowers her chin, a frown forming in her eyes. 

"No no," Willow back pedals quickly. "No one's fault! I'm just saying: We got together at a very stressful time. And sometimes relationships that start at a stressful time... well, they're not always 'forever' relationships."

The frown is still in Kennedy's eyes. Her mouth is twisted like she's tasted something she doesn't like. "You're saying you want to break up with me," she says. 

"I'm saying I want to think about things!" Willow says. Her voice lifts higher as she starts to feel she's losing control over this conversation. "Look, I don't want to fight about this," she starts.

"That's not what it sounds like to me," Kennedy says, standing up.

"Then you're not hearing it right," Willow tells her. She takes a breath before going on. Uncurling her legs from under her, she stands up too so that Kennedy doesn't have the height advantage. "We don't talk anymore. I know you're not interested in my magical stuff, but surely there are other things we can say."

Kennedy's jaw is jutted in her displeasure. Willows sees this, but tries not to be too disheartened by it. 

"I'm just saying I'd like to be able to talk with you more," Willow says, more softly now. "That's all I'm saying."

Kennedy is only standing on the other side of the bed but, to Willow, she seems impossibly far away. Like Willow doesn't have a hope of reaching out to touch her. Abruptly, Kennedy makes a dismissive sniffing sound. 

"Alright. Let's talk. What would you like to talk about?"

"Well," Willow says, trying to see this as a forward step, "how about: How was your day? Any new slayer recruits reach us today?"

As the two of them talk, Willow tries to make herself relax. It's harder than it sounds, and made harder still by the fact that Kennedy crosses her arms and doesn't uncross them until they unmake the bed and lay down in it together. Neither one of them talk about having sex. Willow lies awake long after Kennedy's fallen asleep.


End file.
